-
When France was defeated in 1940, across its empire it underwent a period of civil war as Vichy and Free French forces faced one another. Until at least 1943 there were widespread sympathies across France for the Vichy regime and antipathy towards the British and the Americans. This podcast episode explores the complexities of identity, loyalty and a nation divided. *****STOP PRESS*****I only ever talk about history on this podcast but I also have another life, yes, that of aspirant fantasy auth
-
Continued from yesterday’s episode, we read again from Adam Hochschild’s brilliant book Spain in Our Hearts, about the overwhelming odds faced by the International Brigades in Spain as they crossed the Ebro River in the Republic’s last attempt to hold off the fascist generals and attract the support of the British and the French. The agreement at Munich over the fate of Czechoslovakia signalled that the British and French had no interest in fighting to save Spain from Hitler’s proxies. *****STOP
-
In 1938, the fascist generals who had launched their insurrection two years earlier had divided the country but had not been able to seize Madrid. The Republican government was running out of fuel, arms and options, and decided on one last roll of the dice. Juan Negrin and his government agreed to send their army, including the International Brigades, across the River Ebro to strike deep into Nationalist territory, in the hope that a solid victory would inspire the British and the French at leas
-
The economic realities of a failing war in the east accelerated the timetable for genocide at the highest levels of the Third Reich, but in July 1942 Heinrich Himmler also intended Auschwitz Birkenau to be a site for extracting slave labour from prisoners. He intended this because of the impeding economic and production crises that would engulf the Third Reich as it faced an alliance of America, the USSR and the British Empire. This podcast episode explores the intentions of the SS leader and o
-
Oral histories can be very revealing in understanding the beliefs and feelings that people had in particular historical moments. In Svetlana Alexeivich’s amazing book Second Hand Time, hundreds of former Soviet citizens reflect on their hopes, fears and their anger at the fall of the nation and the society that they knew. This episode is particularly helpful in exploring the resentments that many Russians now feel towards their political and oligarchic class and to the west.*****STOP PRESS*****I
-
When the mandate system was created at the Paris Peace Conference, it became a powerful tool for the British and French to carve up the Middle East and Africa following the defeat and collapse of the German and Ottoman Empires. France took control of Syria and created the state of Lebanon and the British gained Palestine, Transjordan and Iraq. This podcast explores the sour relations between the British and French, Britain’s desperate need to self governance to emerge in Iraq to limit the costs
-
In the late 1960s the British secret state, bankers, right wing newspaper and TV proprietors and other elite figures sought to remove Prime Minister Harold Wilson from power. They were indifferent to the fact that he had won two general elections in a row and thought that a government that included unelected business figures would save the nation from the economic crisis they predicted. *****STOP PRESS*****I only ever talk about history on this podcast but I also have another life, yes, that of
-
In the past two decades successive scandals have revealed that Britain has some of the worst media institutions in the developed world. The ability of ordinary people to interpret the news, use accurate information to hold politicians to account or to gain a coherent sense of the world has arguably never been weaker. In his new book Breaking: Breaking: How the Media Works, When it Doesn’t and Why it Matters, Mic Wright sets out a coherent explanation of this key democratic failing in the UK (as
-
In the decade before the First World War over ten thousand Russian Jews travelled across the Atlantic but instead of alighting in New York, where a large Jewish diaspora community was established, they came to Galveston, Texas. Galveston was not the final destination for most of the new arrivals, many travelled across the USA and settled in its rural and urban centres. In this episode of the Explaining History podcast we speak with author Rachel Cockerell, who traces the story of the Galveston J
-
By the start of the blitz Britain didn’t have enough anti aircraft guns, despite half a decade anticipating mass bombing as a means of war. Germany was ill prepared for the bombing of British cities as well, with its slow, light bomber lacking the speed or the payload to be able to devastate Britain in the way allied airforces would later destroy Germany.*****STOP PRESS*****I only ever talk about history on this podcast but I also have another life, yes, that of aspirant fantasy author and if th